Sunday, 27 May 2018

BLACK MOON CIRCLE ~ PSYCHEDELIC SPACELORD .... review

Ariving in a in a blaze of shimmering, flickering light the Pychedelic Spacelord extends his arm, ancient runes tattooed on parchment like skin barely visible beneath his long multi coloured sleeve as he beckons me to join him. Unable to resist I move forwards and in what seems like nanoseconds I am transported to a place far removed from my home world Earth, a place with the appearance of a long lava tube yet with a weird transparency that enables me to look onto and into the vast surrounding cosmos. "These are the paths between matter and dark matter where we the Spacelords of The Black Moon Circlewalk" says the cowled figure, his back to me . Suddenly a darkly beautiful music fills the air , a music that seems to touch my very soul. The cowled figure slowly turns removing his cowl and with piercing eyes that look right through me say's "And this is our new album"

Black Moon Circle, a collective of like minded musical astronauts from Trondheim, Norway, have been pedalling their brand of psychedelic cosmic rock around Europe since their formation in 2014 and in that time have released a slew of swirling space themed and psychedelic drenched albums and EP's, the band return this year with a new opus entitled "Psychedelic Spacelord", and what an album it is.

Consisting of just one song "Psychedelic Spacelord" is nonetheless a diverse and exhilarating collection of grooves seamlessly stitched together in one long movement Those that might expecting the usual references to Hawkwind, that occur whenever anyone reviews anything that has a space connection, will have to look elsewhere as although their are places where the two bands meet musically those places are few and far between and Black Moon Circle are a much more complex and complicated animal. "Psychedelic Spacelord" shifts and shape changes its way over forty six plus minutes, moving from ambient tranquilty one minute to full on heavy metal bluster the next, touching on a myriad of other elements and dynamics along the way, utilising keys/synths, violins and some really nicely pitched vocals to expand its sound around a core of guitar, bass and drums, the whole coming together to create a sound that is as spectacular as it is mind blowing.

If "Psychedelic Spacelord" were to be described as a planet then it would have to be that jewel of the Galaxy Saturn, on the outside serene and blessed with unbelievable beauty yet beneath its surface a maelstrom of turbulence and unpredictability.

About Me

My name is Frazer (FDJ/Stonerking) and I am sole writer for stoner/doom and psych blog DESERT PSYCHLIST. I am not schooled in journalism, have no degrees and have very little knowledge of English grammer in fact I have no certificates of any description! The truth is I spent most of my formative school years not actually being there preferring instead to following bands around, going to gigs and travelling around the country to see my local football (soccer) team.

The reviews I write here are never going to be grammatically correct with punctuation in all the right places and nor will they be thought provoking and deep, sometimes they will not even make much sense to anyone other than myself but what they will be is from the heart. I want you the reader to feel the music that I love, share in my discoveries and in my disappointments and generally help me to promote the bands and the music that means so much to me. If you find something among these pages and posts that you like then follow the links and spend a few pennies supporting the artist. Lets give a little something back to those that give us so much.